1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to wireless mobile devices. More specifically, the present invention relates to searching for content stored at a remote location via a mobile device and efficiently delivering desired content to the mobile device from that remote location.
2. Description of Related Art
Mobile devices are becoming all inclusive computing devices. Mobile devices are no longer limited to operation solely as a mobile phone and even as a personal digital assistant (“PDA”). With increased processing and battery power and improved display and interface functions, mobile devices are now expected to serve as a ‘laptop on the go.’ Mobile devices are expected to provide not only telephony and/or PDA functions but near-instant access to multimedia and other on-demand content.
Notwithstanding the technological advances in mobile devices, they are not without their limitations. Mobile devices tend to have less processing power, less memory, and more bandwidth constraints as compared to a desktop or laptop computer. Memory constraints may be satisfied by using the mobile device as a client communicatively coupled to a server, which may be nothing more than a home computer with greater storage capacity. While offloading of data solves mobile device memory issues, the shifting of storage responsibilities gives rise to other issues including those related to bandwidth, processing, and on-demand access to such content.
For example, a user may store all of their personal photos at a desktop computer having been configured with a remote access application. This remote access application may allow for access and control of the desktop computing device via a mobile device. The user of the mobile device is then required to search through dozens if not hundreds of photographs at the computing device. While such search activities may be taken for granted when sitting in front of a laptop, attempting to navigate various levels of files may prove difficult on a device with a limited user interface.
Retrieving content from the server/home computing device may prove similarly difficult and/or laborious. A home computer possesses a powerful central processor (or processors) that allow for desired content to be readily accessed, retrieved, and viewed. That same content, when transported to a mobile device, must be identified at the home computer via the mobile device, prepared for transport over an intermediate communications medium (or media), received by the mobile device, stored at the mobile device, retrieved for viewing, and ultimately rendered or executed by the mobile device.
Some files are very large such as music files or high quality photographs. These files will consume a great deal of bandwidth. Similarly, a desktop computer tends to be configured with any number of media execution applications to allow for seamless access and rendering of content. Some applications may not be present on a mobile device for any number of reasons, including processing power and memory constraints.
As such, there is a need in the art for ease of access to content stored at a central storage device and that may be accessed by a mobile device having more limited computational and/or display abilities than that central computing device.